Mourinho tight-lipped? Surely some mistake

03/12/2007

Let’s just take it as read that Jose Mourinho, the man who failed to take Chelsea to a Champions League final despite fielding a squad that would make most managers weep with envy, is the next England manager. He’s said he wants the job – although now he’s refusing to say anything until Mr Bumble (aka Barwick) promises to give him what he wants, basically. His agent says he wants the job. And the FA has no credible alternatives.

So what can we expect from Jose as Ron Manager? A bit more passion for a start. But that wouldn’t be hard. Look at his recent predecessors: only Kevin Keegan ever got upset about anything to do with football (I’d love it, right…). Sir Bobby was too long in the tooth to get really emotional. And Glenn Hoddle was too busy worrying about being reincarnated as a… okay, we won’t go there.

We can expect some fireworks with the clubs too. What Jose wants, Jose gets. So, when Sir Alex doesn’t want to release Rooney et al for friendlies (shall we call them practice matches from now on?), there could be some verbal sparring and a confrontation or two.